(I am extremely happy and proud to introduce Miss Ishita Kishore, who has secured the first rank in this year’s civil services examination in India. She was a student of the 10-month-long General Studies course in Wajiram in the year 2019 and 20. She is a graduate of political science from Delhi University. She has made a significant difference in terms of marks compared to the other top-ranking candidates, which speaks volumes about her hard work, consistency, and her answer writing skills.

I have requested her to come and share her experience of having prepared for this exam with all of you so that you can also benefit, apart from getting inspired by seeing her physically in person before you. I am extremely thankful to her for having readily acceded to the request of the Institute in this regard. I don’t want to stand between you and the candidate for long. Anyway, I am going to meet you subsequently. She will deliver a talk for about 45 minutes, telling you how to prepare for this exam. At the end of the talk, she will take a question and answer session with you. You can raise your questions, and she will answer them. Thank you, sir.

Good morning, everyone. I am very happy to be here after three years. I started here as a foundation course student, and I don’t think it would suffice to say that I’m very happy to be on the other side. So, I’ll try to keep the session as interactive as possible because I understand that you all have a lot of questions, and my only request would be please try to keep your questions a bit specific so that it helps everyone. And please be carefully listening to the questions other people are asking so that I can cover as many areas as possible in 45 minutes. A quick introduction about myself.

I’m sure you know a little bit of basic details, but so much is floating in the media that even I can’t tell what is right and not. So, I’m Ishita Kishore. I’ve done my graduation in economics from Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi University. After that, I started working in Ernst & Young for two years in the profile of risk advisory. That’s when I decided that I will leave my job and I will prepare full time. I hope I’m clear in my communication, but if you do have some doubts, please feel free to raise them. I would be very happy to clarify because I have also benefited by interacting with the toppers of the previous years.

Starting from the start when we begin this journey, we come to these classes. It’s very important to understand how to make notes. So please be very focused on your classes and understand how do we write when someone is delivering a lecture because that will help you understand what is important, what is to be underlined, and what is to be revised again. So once you go back home after these classes…

Do revisit your notes and keep up with daily revision because without that, it can be difficult, and it will also help you reduce the size of your notes. At the end of 10 months, the pile can become quite large. I used to write on A4 sheets, so the pile was substantial. Please be meticulous in sieving out the good materials and standard books.

I have followed all the standard books that are available, and I will also provide a detailed book list. Mostly, NCERTs are recommended for subjects like geography, history, and polity, as they are the main books.

When it comes to other subjects like science and technology, I believe focusing on contemporary issues and basics is essential. If you come from a science background, you may not need to read the NCERTs from grades 6 to 10.

However, since I was not from a science background and did not remember much from school, I revisited all the NCERTs for the basic sciences. It’s important to have a minimum level of science knowledge that we encounter in our daily lives. So please ensure that you have the minimum required understanding in every subject.

For science and technology, supplement your knowledge with current affairs. Stay updated on what is going on and follow a magazine from any coaching institute regularly and consistently. If you don’t want to follow a magazine, you can rely on newspaper reading. In my first attempt, I followed a magazine, but in my second attempt, I didn’t follow any magazines at all. I read the newspaper carefully and made my own newspaper notes.

Initially, I made handwritten notes, but that wasn’t very efficient in the long run, especially as it was my third attempt, and the number of notebooks was increasing. Try to keep your notes digital using efficient apps like Evernote, where you can delete irrelevant information. Sometimes, when we make notes, we tend to include too many details that may not even be important. With digital notes, you can revise and add information more effectively.

If you’re not following a current affairs magazine, be disciplined about daily current affairs. Choose one reliable website and, in addition to newspaper reading, spend 15 minutes making notes from the newspaper and another 15 minutes reviewing the website to ensure you haven’t missed anything important.

This approach helps you build a comprehensive pool of knowledge in current affairs that will last you the entire year. If you still feel insecure about not following a magazine and fear being left behind, you can use the “Bus Index” method, which means focusing on the most important topics. I found this method efficient and it worked well for me.

Apart from basic books, having knowledge of current affairs is crucial. However, more important is how you apply that knowledge during the examination. After not clearing the prelims in my first attempt, I started working on my MCQ-solving aptitude, which is also extremely important. You may know a lot of things, but in those two hours of the exam, the questions can be quite tricky and require good aptitude skills.

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